STRONG BAD:{typing} Who doesn't have a space program these days? I mean, don't, like, the Italians have a space program? Ours is called SBASAF {pronounced "sbase-aff"}. The Strong Badian Administration of Some Aluminum Foil. {clears screen} The only problem is, ...

{Fade to white; Strong Bad continues in voiceover.}

STRONG BAD: ...we blew our whole budget on this kick-awesome logo...

{As he says this, the SBASAF logo appears—a rocket's path tracing the second S, and ending up in position as the first A.}

STRONG BAD: ...and on our orientation filmstrip.

{Cut to a filmstrip frame of the SBASAF logo, with "2005 Strong Badian Administration of Some Aluminum Foil" at the bottom. The frame is initially out of focus, but becomes focused partway through the voiceover.}

VOICEOVER: SBASAF is a definitely-for-profit organization, dedicated to the manned taping of aluminum foil to cardboard. {beep sound}

{Another frame comes up - a stylized drawing of alien mountains in outer space, with a moon and a comet in the sky. A ten and five dollar note are visible, and a large arrow pointing beyond the mountains. The ten dollar bill has the text "TEN O' DEMS" along the top, the earth in the president's place and a circled "SB" for the seal. The five dollar bill is mostly obscured, but a sun and planet are visible on it.}

{Another frame: two astronauts, one lying on a bench with weights, the other saying "Gimme ONE more!!"}

VOICEOVER: While the muscular crew will age only a few hours, the cargo, according to our... {beep}

{Another frame: a portrait of Albert Einstein, saying "Hiya!"}

VOICEOVER: ...vague understanding of the theory of relativity, will have aged to an incredible... {beep}

{Another frame: three large gold bars in space, with the caption "THREE O' DEMS". The slide is initially above center, then is adjusted.}

VOICEOVER: ...one million dollars. And who is good enough at video games...

{Another frame: a photo of a TV screen with a joystick in front of it. On the screen is a typical 2-D one-on-one fighting game with "FIGHT!!!" written on it. The combatants are a hamburger and a ghost. The ghost has only 1/3 health.}

{Another frame: a photo of a grilled cheese sandwich, with the caption Item 3b: "Grilled Cheese". Different music plays for a little bit, then, with a record-scratching noise, the previous music resumes and another frame is cued: two men with flat-top haircuts and headsets in front of a computer terminal. They're wearing horn-rimmed glasses and short-sleeved dress shirts; one has a pocket protector and several pens.}

VOICEOVER: Flat-tops and shirt sleeves are the order of the day at SBASAF mission control. Why, Flight Engineer Ted Averill! You aren't smoking a smooth relaxing cigarette at all! {beep}

{Another frame: the same scene, but the man on the left is smoking.}

VOICEOVER: That's better. And somebody get that man a highball. {beep}

{Another frame: rows of spaceships.}

VOICEOVER: The flagship of SBASAF's 30-vessel fleet is the Proud Anselmo.

{Another frame: Strong Bad in the same outfit, atop a spaceship labeled "PROUD ANSELMO". There is a beam of golden light spotlighting Strong Bad.}

VOICEOVER: A wonder of modern SBASAF-ery, the Proud Anselmo was constructed entirely out of cardboardium alloy. When blastoff day finally arrives,

{Another frame: the '60s girls in silhouette with a large question mark.}

VOICEOVER: ...will you be among the hot '60s-looking girls to wish Strap and Space Captainface a safe voyage? And if not... {beep}

{Another frame: a tearful basset hound with the caption "How Come?"}

VOICEOVER: ...how come?

{Cut to Strong Badia. A close-up of Strong Bad wearing his Space Captainface costume in a cardboard box holding an Atari joystick. He and the box are trembling violently.}

{A wider shot shows that The Cheat is in a taller cardboard box duct-taped to Strong Bad's, and has a CD player. Various objects are duct-taped to the side of the box. We can now see Strong Mad's hand shaking the boxes.}

THE CHEAT:{strained The Cheat noises}

{The Cheat presses play on the CD Player, which plays a sci-fi flyby sound effect. Cut back to Strong Bad. The box lifts into the air temporarily and lands on the ground.}

At the end, click "S. CAPTAINFACE" on the boxflap to the side of Strong Bad to hear a log entry.

{Strong Bad is at the Lappy}

STRONG BAD:{typing} Captainface Log: The vinegar-baking soda drive on the Proud Anselmo has run out of fuel, stranding us in the Impellitteri Sector. There is shrapnel everywhere. It makes one wonder, does man truly—{beep}

{The slide of Item 3b: "Grilled Cheese" comes into frame from the bottom and stays a few seconds, accompanied by its music from the filmstrip.}

The beeps in the filmstrip are common when a presenter is given a set of slides and a tape - so the presenter knows when to change the slides. Also, some combined tape player/projector models advance automatically upon detecting the beep.

The "vague understanding of the theory of relativity" is a parody of Special relativity which is popularly held to be difficult to understand, and predicts that space travellers going near the speed of light will age more slowly.

A Sonar ping is a method used to determine distance from one object to another, like two submarines. One will send out a low level "ping" that travels at a set speed through water, "bounces" off the other submarine, and is re-received by the first's sonar system. The amount of time this takes determines the distance.

There is no Sonar "pong" - the reflection of the ping is called a return. The term "pong" is often incorrectly used due to confusion with the game Ping Pong.

Although it makes sense as constructed, Strong Bad's reference to "escap[ing]... Earth's... tenacity" appears to be a malapropism for the phenomenon of escape velocity.

A highball is an iced drink containing liquor (as whiskey) and water or a carbonated beverage and served in a tall glass. Highballs were also featured prominently in radio.

An alloy is a combination of two or more elements that includes at least two metals and has metallic properties.

The phrase "smooth and relaxing cigarette", like most of the SBASAF slide show, comes directly from the '50s and '60s TV culture. Cigarettes were "in" during this period, so advertisers primarily targeted men in their 20s and 30s, often trying to make non-smokers seem uncool.

Mixing vinegar and baking soda together causes a chemical reaction that, in some instances, can be powerful enough to propel small objects forward.

An afterburner increases the power of a jet engine by adding and burning more fuel before the nozzle and after the turbine (hence, "afterburner"). As it only works on air-breathing jet engines, it cannot be fitted to a rocket.

Apparently several parts of the original email were cut out. The alleged original version was:

subject: Space Program

Dear Strongbad,

Does Strongbadia have a space program? Certainly your terrestrial resources will be depleted at some point: What plans do you have for emergency migration to other worlds?

Crapfully DooDooCrap,

Ryan
Raleigh, NC

We see you!

Using a decompiler to get the original picture used in the video game scene shows the reflection in the screen, showing one of The Brothers Chaps taking the screenshot, with someone else in the background.

This is the first time the King of Town's age is mentioned, as he claims that he is in his 60s.

In the old-fashioned video game shown on the TV, the player on the left is titled "Hamburger" even though it has a large layer of cheese in it which would technically make it a cheeseburger.

The Tire wears a corded headset and is smoking a cigarette. Thus it appears to be the only acting member of Mission Control.

"Track 03" is displayed on the CD player for the afterburner sound as well as for one of the laser sounds.

Some beeps don't occur in the soundtrack accompanying the SBASAF filmstrip. Also, while there is a beep between the final two slides in the filmstrip, the beep is absent when the clip is replayed during one of the Easter eggs.

The S. CAPTAINFACE log is similar to the ones that occur at the beginning of many Star Trek episodes. The original Star Trek series also included philosophical musings on whether man belonged in space, which may be the sentiment interrupted by the grilled cheese sandwich slide.

The narrator's comments about shirt-sleeves and flattops being the order of the day, and implying a cigarette is required, is a good description of late '60s early '70s Mission Control. Many other aspects of SBASAF including its acronym title and logo parallel NASA.

Albert Einstein was a twentieth century theoretical physicist, most famous for his theory of relativity. This email came out in 2005, which marked the 100th anniversary of Einstein's famous paper on Special Relativity.

Harold "Strap" Coopmore is possibly a reference to U.S. Air Force General Henry "Hap" Arnold who served on the committee that would become NASA.

F/X is a movie from 1986 starring Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy. The movie is about a special effects technician who is hired by a government agency to help stage the assassination of a well-known gangster.

The joystick next to the TV is the standard ColecoVision joypad, known as the "doorknob" due to the control stick's distinctive and somewhat uncomfortable shape.

Strong Bad's "Space Captainface" costume includes a petasus, the winged hat that is characteristically worn by the Greek god Hermes.